


Protection

by oneatatime



Category: Kamen Rider Drive
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2015-06-12
Packaged: 2018-04-04 01:35:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4121419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oneatatime/pseuds/oneatatime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Of protectiveness, kindness, fear and sleep.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Protection

**Author's Note:**

  * For [butyoumight](https://archiveofourown.org/users/butyoumight/gifts).



> Set after episode 33.

It's maybe two hours after his triumphant return to the Pit that Shinnosuke looks up and notices Chase. 

He's tired, but he doesn't think he'll ever be able to sleep again. He's all right, though. Now that they've brought him back. Belt-san and everyone else. Couldn't've worked without Chase's information, without Go sharing what he knew with Chase and Kiriko, without Kiriko piloting, without Rinna-san's technical knowledge....... well. Without all of their knowledge, courage, and hearts. 

He's grateful. Enormously grateful.

The others are in various little clumps around the Pit. He suspects someone's gone out for food, too. Chase is... just kind of looking at him, at where he's sitting by the door. 

Shinnosuke raises his eyebrows in enquiry, a smile on his face, then he notices that Chase is flickering.

"Chase," he says in quiet horror.

Chase takes a step closer to him, then pauses, looking down at his hand. It flickers from human to Roidmude and back again. When Chase looks up at Shinnosuke once more, his eyes are dark pools of distress. 

His voice is deep. Confused. "I don't know why this happens." 

Shinnosuke stands long enough to reach a long arm out to grab Chase's wrist. He tugs him gently towards the low seat, until Chase stumbles over and actually sits with him, half turned towards him. Good. They can have this quiet moment together, no matter what else is going on. 

"Unless you're injured... I think you're having a reaction to having been scared," Shinnosuke says softly. "I get those, too."

"Scared? But I don't get scared...?"

Shinnosuke shakes his head. "I think you've been told you don't. But that doesn't mean you don't, Chase."

They're quiet for a moment as Chase clamps his hands to his face and another ripple works its way through him. His face actually twists. Not just the ripple, but his human face; his nose scrunches and his mouth tenses. Shinnosuke wonders briefly if this is embarrassing for him. He hopes not. It's a physical reaction to emotion, and those have to come out sometime. (He suspects if he has one himself, it's going to be fairly spectacular.) 

Krim says something in the distance, firm, but Rinna's voice rises in a laugh over the top. 

Chase is soft. "H-how do you feel when you're scared?"

"Shaky. Focused. Sometimes in a good way, because being afraid can make you focus on exactly what you need to do to save yourself, or the person or people you're afraid for. Sometimes in a bad way, if it's too much and you can't get on top of it." 

He peers in Chase's eyes, concerned but smiling, and touches his shoulder. Chase feels tense in a way that's not quite like his usual robotic disinclination to relax. 

"Caring about someone... can make you afraid for them." 

Shinnosuke nods. 

Chase continues, slowly, working it out aloud. "I've been afraid for others before, I think."

His hand flickers again on his knee, and Shinnosuke instantly covers it with his own. 

"I get afraid all the time, but I have to bury it to do what I have to do." 

"How do you make the fear go away? When everything's over?" 

Kyuu-chan laughs in the distance somewhere, and Gen-chan's voice rises in humorous protest. 

Shinnosuke swallows. "Sometimes a physical reminder that it's all better will help." 

He's not sure about this making enough of a difference. He knows Chase cares about him, but Chase was also afraid for Kiriko, and probably for Go as well. Maybe even a tiny bit for Chase himself, though he knows that will be an entirely separate issue for Chase when Chase finally begins to confront that he's allowed to want to live. 

But he does it anyway. He moves his hand to Chase's wrist instead, and brings Chase's hand to his chest, pressing it firmly against his heart. Chase's fingers spasm in the fabric of his shirt, but settle eventually. Shinnosuke's silent for a while, counting beats, until he sees Chase's shoulders gradually begin to relax.

"You're alive," Chase whispers unevenly. 

Shinnosuke nods, and finds himself smiling again. It's difficult not to smile at Chase. Chase has been through so much, and yet he's continuing to try to help them all, he's continuing to try to learn to communicate with them. He is a ragged, monumental effort at wholeness, and Shinnosuke admires that greatly. "Yes. I won't tell you not to worry, but yes. I'm alive. Thanks to Belt-san and all of you." 

Chase continues to sit with him like that, for quite a while, and the ripples become less and less frequent. Shinnosuke finds it... strangely reassuring. Relaxing, even. Chase's hand is a firm presence against his skin.

(Reminds him that he's not dreaming this from the afterlife.)

(Probably.)

He catches himself in a yawn a little later, and Chase ventures, "If you want to sleep... I'll watch." 

Oh. 

Oh, that'd be quite good, actually. He blinks at Chase, asks, "Are you sure...?" 

Chase nods, and Shinnosuke finds himself being eased down to lie on the low seat instead. He curls forward on his right side, around Chase, who keeps a hand on his chest. Shinnosuke pillows his cheek on his forearm, and yawns again. It's pleasantly warm in here, which is good as he's been feeling cold.

It's hardly any time at all before he feels himself begin to drift off, and because of Chase, he's reasonably sure that he'll come back again.


End file.
